After the confidence of the previous two years, the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation too often disappointed by not seeing a good idea through to the end. Denise Crosby was swept back under the carpet in the Klingon soap opener ("Redemption Part II"). No one could make the prospect of Deep Space 9 attractive enough to Michelle Forbes, so her fantastic performance as "Ensign Ro" seems wasted in retrospect. And no one could re-schedule for Robin Williams to guest star, so we had Matt Frewer instead ("A Matter of Time"). Of all stories to use Leonard Nimoy in, "Unification" wallowed in Romulan politics instead of anything emotionally engaging. Gene Roddenberry wanted to introduce a gay character, but mere months after his death all we got was the trite "The Outcast".

This was inarguably where the rot set in, without The Great Bird overseeing what was going on. Worst of all, his hard-as-nails bad guys The Borg were given a touchy-feely side ("I, Borg"). But scattered in-between were some of the very best of all 178 shows. "Darmok" had the feel of a Classic Trek episode, dealing with language as metaphor. "The First Duty" challenged Wesley Crusher's loyalties. Best of all was the painfully melancholy "The Inner Light", in which Picard experiences an alternate lifetime. There were great guest stars: Paul Winfield, Ashley Judd, Kelsey Grammar, Famke Janssen, and Jerry Hardin. As always there were contributions from Q, Lwaxana and Barclay too. Fans and critics now appreciate that behind-the-scenes focus had shifted from The Next Generation to the next spin-off, and it would never fully return. —Paul Tonks

As the sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation went into production, everyone knew that attentions would soon be permanently divided by the debut of Deep Space Nine. Sure enough that meant crossovers ("Birthright"), guest stars and references back and forth. The sense of baton-passing drew the TNG family closer, however. Directorial debuts begun in Season 5 allowed for repeat group-huddle ownership of several shows. Jonathan Frakes bettered "The Quality of Life" by "The Chase", which finally offered an explanation why most races in the Trek universe are humanoid with knobbly foreheads. Patrick Stewart crowbarred a Western into the franchise in "A Fistful of Datas". LeVar Burton introduced the far more exciting Riker clone Thomas in "Second Chances". But here we still find that inability to follow through a good idea, since it was intended for Tom to replace Will. Barclay outstayed his welcome with a lacklustre "Ship in a Bottle" (despite a hammy cameo from Stephanie Beacham) after he'd injected creepiness into "Realm of Fear". The same happened with Q and the painfully weak "True Q" contrasted by the philosophically challenging "Tapestry", where Picard faced the decisions of his youth.

Yet ultimately the year provided more memorable moments than either year 5 did or year 7 would. There was the fun of a pint-sized Starfleet in "Rascals", the shocking comment on political torture in "Chain of Command", the endless Matrix-like guessing game of reality in "Frame of Mind", and even a jokey genre nod often called "Die Hard Picard" instead of "Starship Mine". The two biggest attention-drawing moments came via stellar cameos. There was the bittersweet sight of James Doohan revisiting the original Enterprise Bridge on "Relics", then a quick contribution by Stephen Hawking in the cliff-hanger "Descent". Both were attempts at keeping TNG the connoisseur's Trek incarnation of choice. —Paul Tonks

When this epic series was first broadcast in 1973 it redefined the gold standard for television documentary; it remains the benchmark by which all factual programming must judge itself. Originally shown as 26 one-hour programmes, The World at War set out to tell the story of the Second World War through the testimony of key participants. The result is a unique and unrepeatable event, since many of the eyewitnesses captured on film did not have long left to live. Each hour-long programme is carefully structured to focus on a key theme or campaign, from the rise of Nazi Germany to Hitler's downfall and the onset of the Cold War. There are no academic "talking heads" here to spell out an official version of history; the narration, delivered with wonderful gravitas by Sir Laurence Olivier, is kept to a minimum. The show's great coup was to allow the participants to speak for themselves. Painstaking research in the archives of the Imperial War Museum also unearthed a vast quantity of newsreel footage, including on occasion the cameraman's original raw rushes which present an unvarnished and never-before-seen picture of important events. Carl Davis' portentous main title theme and score underlines the grand scale of the enterprise. The original 26 episodes were supplemented three years later by six special programmes (narrated by Eric Porter), bringing the total running-time to a truly epic 32 hours. —Mark Walker

Writer-director Woody Allen has produced yet another challenging and funny film with Everyone Says I Love You, this time taking on the musical genre and bending it to his own unique vision. The result is one of his most charming films in recent years, as Allen assembles a typically sterling ensemble cast to evoke the romanticism of years past. This time, the large cast (including Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton and Tim Roth) not only turn in funny and touching performances, but they sing the classic songs of the 1930s and 1940s themselves, and sing them very well. The plot centres on an extended family in New York and their various romantic entanglements, including Allen's pursuit of Julia Roberts through the streets of Paris and the canals of Venice. The musical numbers are the film's high points, displaying wonderful choreography ranging from a room full of dancing Groucho Marxes to a dancing couple in flight at the banks of the Seine. Everyone Says I Love You is a witty and entertaining fantasy, and truly romantic escapism.—Robert Lane, Amazon.com

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her is his least stylised, most accessible and arguably greatest movie. Covering the same, highly provocative terrain as Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle and The Smiths' "Girlfriend in a Coma", Almodovar forges a work that's funny, compassionate, engaging and deeply touching.

Unusually for Almodovar, the emphasis is on the two male characters, with the female leads spending much of the film as "objects" in a vegetative state. Dario Grandinetti plays Marco, a journalist who befriends Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter. Following a goring in the ring, she lapses into a coma. At the clinic where she is kept on life support, Marco meets a somewhat effete male nurse, Benigno (Javier Camara) who lovingly tends to a ballet student, Alicia, also chronically comatose. They strike up a friendship, their respective stories emerging through flashbacks. Both, however, respond to their common fate in different ways. Marco is distraught at the loss of Lydia, whereas the dysfunctional Benigno is blissful, tending to Alicia, for whom he nourished an obsession prior to accident. Reduced to being a vegetable, she is fully, unresistingly, his.

It's a tribute to Almodovar that he is able to handle the outlandish, potentially appalling subject matter of Talk To Her with such finesse. Emotionally, it's often on a knife edge; there are moments when you don't know whether to laugh, gasp or sigh. But when ultimately you find yourself welling with tears of sympathy for an alleged rapist, you realise what a master filmmaker Almodovar is.

On the DVD: Talk To Her offers an excellent transfer of a visually handsome movie. Extras are a little disappointing—just trailers for Almodovar's more outlandish Live Flesh and All About My Mother. —David Stubbs

The latest feature-length DVD spin-off from Matt Groening's terrific Futurama, The Beast With The Billion Backs picks up directly after the recent Bender's Big Score, and the momentum and fun from that production comes along with it.

The story of The Beast With The Billion Backs follows, as you may have guessed from the title, the arrival of a strange creature on Earth. Said creature then takes control of Fry, who becomes the Pope of a brand new religion that soon begins to exert its grip on the planet. And without giving too much away, the panic and paranoia becomes just one part of an ambitious animated adventure, that makes a fair few points among its many, many laughs.

The good news for fans of Futurama is that The Beast With The Billion Backs really delivers, with more guffaws and a better all-round script than the mightily enjoyable Bender's Big Score. It's not without the odd problem, and still doesn't quite manage to match the highs of the TV show at its finest, but it's a very welcome fresh addition to the Futurama universe.

Two further direct-to-DVD movies are in the works at the time of this review being written, and with them comes continued hope for a full-on revival of one of the funniest animated programmes of the past ten years. It may not make suitable family viewing, but Futurama is brilliant television, and The Beast With A Billion Backs offers plenty of evidence as to why. Strongly recommended. —Jon Foster

Despite Nemesis bearing strong echoes of the Star Trek franchise's 1982 zenith, The Wrath of Kahn, the tenth film in the series sadly lacks Kahn's enormous conviction and resonance. That aside, Nemesis is still a strong, enjoyable effort containing all the Trek hallmarks, while making few concessions for non-fans. Following the wedding of Riker and Troi, the Enterprise is called to negotiate peace with longtime Federation enemies the Romulans, now led by the mysterious Reman, Shinzon (a malevolent Tom Hardy), who bears an unnervingly close link to Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). At the same time, Data's (Brent Spiner) surprise discovery of an inferior prototype of himself leads him to make to some harsh human decisions.

Certainly, the film has a comfy familiarity to it, and there are no shocking changes of direction, but scriptwriter John Logan (Gladiator) and director Stuart Baird (Executive Decision)—both franchise newcomers—make some fine contributions. Logan imbues some scenes with fine seething drama, particularly between Picard and Shinzon, and introduces, in a psychic assault on Troi (Marina Sirtis), a hitherto unseen darkness in the Trek universe. Baird, meanwhile, offsets the series "talkiness" with some superbly realised—and brutal—action sequences. Should this indeed be the final voyage for The Next Generation Enterprise, then it could have been far worse. —Danny Graydon

What kind of guy was the wizard Merlin, anyway? He lives a long time, raises a boy to be a king, props up a Utopian empire with his magic and wisdom, and then watches as it all crumbles under such banal forces as vengeance and betrayal. This four-hour mini-series re-tells the story of Camelot and King Arthur from the perspective of the magic man who sacrifices a great deal to guide mortals toward a better destiny. Sam Neill plays Merlin as an accessible, flesh-and-blood fellow of real passion, powerless to undo the spell of a rival (Rutger Hauer) who has virtually imprisoned Merlin's great love, Nimue (Isabella Rossellini), but gifted enough to counter the treachery of Morgan Le Fey (Helena Bonham Carter) and the wicked Queen Mab (Miranda Richardson). The battle sequences and special effects are striking and original, and it is great fun to see such art-house movie actors as Richardson, Carter, Neill, etc., in fantasy entertainment the whole family can enjoy. (An unrecognizable Martin Short must be singled out, however, for a wonderful, largely dramatic performance as Mab's sidekick, Frik.) Directed by Steve Barron (The Adventures of Pinocchio), Merlin is a nice bit of glossy revisionism of a beloved legend. —Tom Keogh

Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero—what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film The Fifth Element incorporates presidents, rock stars and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. —Geoff Riley

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humour is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. —Jeff Shannon

The Illusionist offers welcome proof that "arthouse" quality needn't be limited to the arthouses. Set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, this stately, elegant period film benefited from a crossover release in mainstream cinemas, and showed considerable box-office staying power—granted, teenage mallrats and lusty males may have been drawn to the allure of Seventh Heaven alumna Jessica Biel, who rises to the occasion with a fine performance. But there's equal appeal in the casting of Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti, who bring their formidable talents to bear on the intriguing tale of a celebrated magician named Eisenheim (Norton) whose stage performance offends the Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), a vindictive lout who aims to marry Duchess Sophie (Biel), Eisenheim's childhood friend and now, 15 years later, his would-be lover. This romantic rivalry and Eisenheim's increasingly enigmatic craft of illusion are investigated by Chief Inspector Uhl (Giamatti), who's under Leopold's command and is therefore not to be trusted as Eisenheim and Sophie draw closer to their inevitable reunion. Cleverly adapted by director Neil Burger from Steven Millhauser's short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist," and boasting exquisite production values and a fine score by Philip Glass, The Illusionist is the kind of class act that fully deserved its unusually wide and appreciative audience. —Jeff Shannon